On Saturday, some 4,000 delegates gathered to determine which Republican candidates will advance to represent the party in this year’s general elections in November. We attended the convention and asked state delegates at random the following questions:

“What is the importance of politics?”

“What does personal responsibility mean to you?”

“Is limited government important?”

You can hear how delegates responded by watching this video:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLANWHNREKI

How would you respond to these questions?

Here’s the script of the video:

VOICE-OVER: The big political event of last weekend was the Republican State Convention, as some 4,000 delegates decided on Saturday which candidates will advance in this year’s elections process. Sutherland Institute attended the state convention and asked state delegates at random a few questions, one of them being: “What is the importance of politics?”

“To me is to be able to be involved and feeling like you have a say in what is happening in the country and that we can make a difference.”

“I think that the number one thing is that politics is the replacement for war, and when people can’t solve their differences between each other then they create war. Politics is the gentleman’s way of being able to solve differences.”

“Because decisions are made in politics that affect us every day, and if we want to have control over what happens to us, we need to be involved in politics.”

“Because that is how our nation is run; it’s supposed to be of the people for the people by the people, and we’re just not doing that anymore. So this is the first time I have done this and thought I needed to get a little more involved, so that’s really important.”

VOICE-OVER: So what does personal responsibility mean to you?

“Means getting out and being involved; doesn’t mean you just take a back seat and just go with the status quo; that you know the issues and try to make that difference yourself.”

“Means you make your choices and follow through with your choices and the choices you make come back to you, so that means you are responsible to what happens to you and what you choose.”

VOICE-OVER: What about limited government? Is that important?

“The larger the government is, the less money we have. The smaller the government is, the more we have.”

“Government doesn’t solve the problems, government is the problem. So we need to reduce that. They have certain things they need to do, such as they need to be able to protect us so we need to have a national defense, we have to have interstate roads, so yeah, they have to do certain things, but as limited as possible.”

VOICE-OVER: For the higher political offices: Governor Gary Herbert will be the Republican Party nominee for governor and will face Democrat Peter Cook. Saratoga Springs Mayor Mia Love is the 4th District nominee and will face U.S. Representative Jim Matheson. Representative Jason Chaffetz won the 3rd District nomination; his Democratic opponent will be Salt Lake City Councilman Soren Simonsen. Chris Stewart is the 2nd District Republican nominee, and his opponent will be former state House Representative Jay Seegmiller. In the 1st Congressional District, Rob Bishop is the Republican nominee, and his opponent could be Donna McAleer or Ryan Combe, who will face each other first in a Democratic primary.

Senator Orrin Hatch fell a few votes shy of winning the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate, forcing him into a primary election with former state Senator Dan Liljenquist, and the winner of June’s primary will face former state Senator Scott Howell. For Sutherland Institute, I’m Alexis Young, reminding you that public policy changes lives.